Capacitive touch sensors are used as a user interface to electronic equipment, e.g., calculators, telephones, cash registers, gasoline pumps, etc. The capacitive touch sensors may be arranged in a keypad matrix and activated (controls a signal indicating activation) by a change in capacitance of the capacitive touch sensor when an object, e.g., user finger tip, causes the capacitance of the capacitive touch sensor to change. Generally, the keypad matrix of capacitive touch sensors are fabricated on a substrate with a protective covering, e.g., glass or clear plastic resin cover, over the capacitive touch sensors. The protective covering may also have alpha-numeric characters thereon to identify the purpose of each the associated capacitive touch sensors.
When an object having capacitance, such as a user finger tip, comes in close proximity to the sensor element, the capacitance value of the sensor element changes. This capacitance change is electronically detected so as to generate a signal indicating activation of that capacitive touch sensor by the object in close proximity thereto. This electronic detection must be performed by an electronic device which requires power to operate the electronic device. Current technology requires that the electronic device, when in a sleep mode, be awakened in order to scan the keypad matrix of capacitive touch sensors. When the electronic device is in the low power standby or sleep mode, either response time to detection of the capacitance change or power consumption of the electronic device must suffer.